School boards must lower school spending

Saturday

Oct 13, 2012 at 12:01 AM

Editor, the Record:

Editor, the Record:

Recently, a current Stroud Township school board member wrote a letter to the editor in opposition to HB 1776, which would change the method in which we pay our school tax (converting it to consumer based).

It seems that he just may not pay the very high taxes that many of us face. My current school only tax is more than $7,600 and my house isn't all that and I never had children. When school boards figure out how short they are in funds, annually, they look at the average of the increase per house. An example — which was printed just a short time back in the Pocono Record — is for school year 2013-2014 they see a shortfall of $4.7 million that they will pass on to the homeowner. I believe they estimated an average cost of $60 per house. Doesn't seem to be much, but it is an average.

My tax will probably increase by $200, again, while others increase by $30. School boards are made up of good people but they haven't a clue of the unintentional devastation they create. They need to have controls on them and we in Northeast Pennsylvania would only benefit from the passage of HB 1776/SB 1400. We might actually be able to create jobs.

Student population is in decline, homeowners are fleeing this township and/or the state. Why do school boards continue to increase their spending? The credit cards need to be cut and all our well-meaning school board members need to attend credit counseling of some type.

As for HB 1776, there was a demonstration in favor of it in Harrisburg on Sept. 25. Fairness needs to be brought to the table when it comes to taxing homeowners. Homeowners support all the local businesses. So raise our taxes, kill our local economy.